Past Initiatives

Welcome to our Program Archive

This page presents an archive of our past programs.

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society works to support the contemplative dimension of teaching, learning and knowing in higher education, but since its founding in the mid-1990’s has sponsored many projects and programs exploring the impact of contemplative awareness in secular and professional settings. For a more detailed chronology of our work, please visit our history page.

Between 1997 and 2009, over 100 Fellowships were awarded to professors to restore the critical contribution that contemplative practices can make to the life of teaching, learning, and scholarship, and to explore how pedagogical and intellectual benefits can be discovered by bringing contemplative practice into the academy. Learn more.

Our Social Justice Program, active from 2004 through 2009, was developed to serve a diverse group of people representing all sectors of the social justice movement committed to creating a more just and equitable world. At retreats, workshops and training sessions, participants discovered sources of inspiration and developed transformative practices to create healthier work environments supporting social justice activism. Learn more.

The Law Program has explored the integration of contemplative perspectives into legal education, law practice, and the judicial process. Retreats and workshops in contemplative practices demonstrated applications to legal settings, fostering curriculum and program development, research, and scholarship. Learn more.

By fostering dialogues on philanthropy and the inner life, providing opportunities for contemplation and reflection, convening workshops and gatherings, and supporting ongoing conversations, the Philanthropy Program worked to deepen and integrate what philanthropists value most in their inner lives with what they value most in their philanthropic work. Learn more.

The Youth Program began in 1997 when CMind, working with Tibet House, developed the youth component of “Peacemaking and the Art of Nonviolence,” a conference with the Dalai Lama and other Nobel laureates. We continued to work with youth leaders in incorporating contemplative awareness into youth programs in our local Holyoke/Springfield, MA area and across the nation. Learn more.

This exploration of the integration of contemplative practices in corporate settings began in 1996 when CMind worked with Monsanto to develop the first program of in-depth insight meditation within a large corporation in the US. In 2008, we began working with Google to develop “Search Inside Yourself,” an employee training program on mindfulness and emotional intelligence which is now an ongoing course at Google University. Learn more.

Is there a theory or understanding of leadership that includes the contemplative dimension? A series of gatherings at the Harvard Graduate School of Education aim to understand the current situation concerning contemplative leadership and discuss the future place of contemplative theory and practice in leadership formation. Learn more.

Teacher education faculty members from universities and colleges throughout Israel are exploring the role of contemplative practice in teaching and learning, considering how contemplative practices foster teacher resilience and develop capacities to manage the intense stress of the contemporary classroom. Learn more.

The Contemplative Net Project was a qualitative research project conducted by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society from 2001 through 2004. The Project researched the ways in which contemplative practices are being employed in mainstream American society. Learn more.

The Center worked with the US Army to explore the uses of meditation to restore resiliency in chaplains and medical caregivers. The project included a research report, The Use of Meditation and Mindfulness Practices to Support Military Care Providers, and a dialog at the National Cathedral between mindfulness meditation, contemplative neuroscience experts, and Army leaders. Learn more.